New Project: Fading Away

In the past, I've mentioned my grandmother's struggles with Alzheimer's Disease. Over the past several years, we've watched helplessly as she had everything stolen from her - her memory, her personality, her dignity, her freedom. Seeing her fight the losing battle against this disease, and seeing the effect it's had on our family, has been crushing.

I've recently began making portraits of my grandmother, and those photos have inspired me to produce Fading Away. I'm hoping to find several other families whose loved ones have been afflicted with Alzheimer's and who will allow me to meet with them, photograph their loved one, and tell that person's story. Our society looks at Alzheimer's Disease as "forgetfulness". Most people know it causes a person to lose their memory, but don't understand the other effects of the disease. Through Fading Away, I want to help educate people about this disease, which is on the precipice of becoming an epidemic (by age 80, fully one half of all people will have been afflicted with Alzheimer's). I also hope that, by telling the stories of people who have had their lives stolen from them by the illness, that I can put a face on the illness and help further research toward finding a cure.